March 9, 2024
By Xari Jalil
LAHORE
At least eight graves from the Ahmadi graveyard were destroyed on the night between Thursday and Friday, (March 7 and 8), in a cemetary located in Barmoj Koi in District Kotli, AJK. The local community has accused members of the Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan of being behind the incident.
The incident comes a week after a local leader of the Ahmadi community in Bahawalpur was shot dead by unknown assailants.
According to local sources, this is the second such incident that has taken place in Kotli in the span of six months, where tombstones have been destroyed. But these are incidents that only get some reporting from the media, otherwise there are many others that never get any attention.
The local president of the Ahmadi community who has taken the responsibility of having the First Information Report filed, says that there has been fierce campaigning against them over the past many months by TLP on social media.
“They have campaigned against us on videos, in mosque announcements and even behind vehicles,” he told Voicepk. “A few months ago in September, around 70 to 80 people supported by the TLP, stormed into a school and made one of the teachers leave. There are disgusting things being said about our leaders and spread on Whatsapp groups. And our teachers are not even allowed to teach freely in schools. This is even after we have accepted that we will not teach Islamiyat. Yet still they spread rumours about Ahmadi teachers on Whatsapp groups and place them in a dangerous position.”
Mehmood said that they had lost all trust in the justice system of the country.
“In the graves desecration incident that took place last time, no one was arrested,” he says. “We know of which individuals were behind the incident but those men are roaming around freely. Not a single law enforcement officer has arrested them or taken note of them. Several of these individuals are involved in criminal activities but the police tend to ignore it. Or they are let out on bail.”
He says these criminal elements blackmail people into supporting them on basis of religion. “They say to them, if you have said the kalima then you must do this…’ and the people follow them into blocking roads and causing issues to the Ahmadi community. We are not even allowed to distribute meat on Eid. They stone our houses, they do aerial firing in front of the police which are just silent spectators, while our families are frightened to death.”
Mehmood says that when he tried to talk to local authorities about the campaigning and attacks, he was told ‘these are not just one or two people – these are people who will hijack the entire country’.
“The officer who said to this to me also admitted that the state had bowed down in front of these elements,” he said.
In a prior incident, the graves of Mehmood’s own family members, including his grandfather and his wives, were destroyed, their headstones taken away by the attackers.
In yesterday’s incident, the graveyard was owned by the same family. and was built around Partition (possibly 1948). There were around 20 graves in the family graveyard, out of which some (one branch of the family) were of Ahmadis. The graveyard is very near Zero Line or the line of control.
“The situation in the recent past has become extremely hostile,” said Amir Mehmood. “The events occurring are nothing new to the vulnerable and susceptible Ahmadiyya community in the country. We continue to plead the authorities to devise concrete plans to stop these incidents and elements from strengthening, but little is being done to protect us.”